College Notes: Rockford University baseball season down to this

The season comes down to the final weekend for the Rockford University baseball team, which heads into its last Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference games on the bubble for the league tournament.

Despite losing its eighth straight to Benedictine last weekend, Rockford (18-16, 8-10 NACC) still holds the sixth and final league playoff spot. If the Regents win both of their games on Saturday at Marian they will clinch a spot in the NACC Tournament. First pitch of the Marian doubleheader is noon.

However, a split will leave them scoreboard watching and relying on three other results, while two losses will end their season all together. The tournament is hosted by Concordia Wisconsin from May 8-11 at Kapco Park in Mequon, Wis.

Softball regionals come to RVC

Rock Valley will host the five-team, double-elimination Region IV softball tournament beginning on Friday at 10 a.m., and the No. 1-seeded Golden Eagles will be looking for their second straight trip to the national tournament. RVC (35-8, 14-2 N4C) will take on the winner of the feed-in game between Madison and Joliet at noon on Friday.

The tournament will close out Saturday, with the finals starting at noon. The tourney winner earns an automatic berth to the NJCAA Division III national championship tournament.

RVC’s Cleaver signs D-II letter

Aleesha Cleaver, who starred for the Rock Valley College women’s basketball team this past season, signed a letter of intent to play basketball at NCAA Division II Upper Iowa University (Fayette, Iowa).

The 5-foot-8 guard averaged 10.3 points 4.6 rebounds and 2.3 steals last season. She also made the President’s List for the fall semester after achieving a 4.0 grade point average.

NIU players, coach earns awards

After a strong 2013-14 season, four members of NIU’s men’s tennis team were recognized by the MAC as among the conference’s best. Dor Amir and Axel Lagerlof were given First-Team All-MAC honors, while Frederic Cadieux was a Second-Team, All-MAC player. To cap it off, Patrick Fisher was named MAC Coach of the Year.

“There are a lot of great coaches in this conference,” Fisher said in a release. “It’s a great accomplishment to be honored among these guys.”

Fisher coached the Huskies to an 18-5 regular-season record and a 4-0 MAC mark, finishing in sole possession of first place as the regular-season champs. Fisher is the first coach in NIU history to be named MAC Coach of the Year.

Local shines as freshman

Lewis University’s Melissa VanSistine (Boylan) closed out her freshman season last weekend with a strong showing in the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament at Annbriar Golf Course in Waterloo. The former NIC-10 MVP shot a 79-79 and finished tied for ninth, while the Flyers finished sixth with a team score of 653 (320-333) after playing the par-72, 5,882-yard course.